[Believing it would be of interest to our readers, the editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has asked Sabbath-keeping ministers and evangelical workers to tell in a few words the scripture or scriptures, the truths and principles, which constrained them to accept the unpopular truth of the seventh-day Sabbath. These testimonies must not exceed 300 words. Let us hear from all.]
LIII.
In 1871 I was converted and joined the Methodist Church in Perth Amboy, N. J. Thinking Sunday was the Sabbath, I kept it as the Sabbath should be kept. Out of this grew the following conversation between my sister and myself:—
She,—“If you are to be as careful as the Jews, you ought to keep the Sabbath.”
I,—“Do I not?”
She,—“No, Saturday is the Sabbath.”
I,—“How say you Saturday, when God says the seventh day?”
She,—(smiling at my ignorance) “Saturday is the seventh day.”
I,—“Can you prove that?”
She,—“See for yourself” (handing me an almanac), and for the first time I noticed that the week commenced with Sunday and ended with Saturday.
I,—“What has the almanac to do with religion?”
She,—“True, but on what day did Christ rise?” (handing me a Bible open to Mark 16:9.)
I,—“On the first day of the week.”
She,—“Then, according to your own idea and Mark 16:9, Sunday is the first day of the week, and therefore Saturday is the seventh.”
I,—(in deep thought) “Yes, but then we ought to change.”
A brother then tried to show how Jesus and the apostles had changed the day, and it seemed so plausible I believed it, but asked where it was written. He became confused and I became suspicious, and pressed him for a “thus saith the Lord,” when he openly confessed that there was no scripture for it. I therefore sought God in prayer, searching His Word, but the only facts I could there gather were, “The seventh day is the Sabbath.” The whole world agreed with God that Sunday was the first day of the week, and therefore the day before was the seventh. I kept the following Sabbath, not knowing but what I was the only man in the world doing so. For obedience I soon lost my job as a carpenter, and was disfellowshipped by the church I loved.
I moved to Texas to farm, where I lived five years alone. Having in the meantime heard of the Seventh-day Adventists, I went to Battle Creek, Mich., in 1876, where I soon learned more about the Sabbath. But for me to know beyond doubt what day was the seventh day, and that God said (Ex. 20:11), “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” was sufficient to cause me to change, and to keep me, this alone, for five years. And what was sufficient for me seems might be sufficient for any honest person.
Keene, Texas. A. W. JENSON.
LIV.
My parents were members of the Methodist Church, and I was early taught to reverence the Bible as God’s Word. In 1852, when but a child, I listened to my aunt as she read the Bible to mother, and as she read, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” it made a great impression on my mind. My mother soon commenced to obey, and after that Elders J. B. Frisbie, M. E. Cornell, Joseph Bates, J. N. Loughborough, and Brother and Sister White, and other pioneers in the message, came into Jackson County, Mich., where we lived, and held meetings, all of which made a deep impression on my young mind. When quite young, my parents moved to Battle Creek, Mich. The words of my first Sabbath-school teachers greatly impressed me.
When a little past twelve years of age, a series of meetings was held in our church for the young people. This, and my mother’s earnest talks and prayers, decided me to give myself to the Lord. From the time I made a start in the service of God I felt that I wanted to work for others. I shall always remember one of my schoolmate’s meeting with a serious accident, and my going and talking and praying with him. Now, for more than twenty years, my life has been given to the work of the Gospel ministry. GEO. O. STATES.
